Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Short Stuff: Amber Alerts

Transcript

Short Stuff: Amber Alerts · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry sitting in for Dave, which makes
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: everything normal. That's right, Chuck. Yes, we're going to do
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: this like an old school stuff you should know episode.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: I have a feeling I know what's coming.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Have you ever gotten an Amber Alert?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Yes?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I have.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: There's nothing more sort of ear splitting and troublesome, immediately
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: troublesome and upsetting than getting that claxon Amber alert all
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: of a sudden at your nightstand, coming through your smartphone.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That's actually a little older than I thought. I
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: think those started in twenty twelve. Wireless emergency alert Yeah,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: and yes you can turn them off. But if you
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: turn them off, you are shedding a slight amount of
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: your humanity perhaps, although there's a debate about whether they're
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: being over used or not. But one of the wireless
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: emergency alerts that you can get is an Amber alert. Specifically,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: there's other ones we'll mention at the end of the episode,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: but the Amber alert is like the OG and it
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: has a terrible tragic origin story to it. Amber actually
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: is an acronym for America's Missing Colon of all things
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: broadcast emergency response AMBER. But it's also the namesake of
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: a girl, I think a nine year old named Amber
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Hagerman who lived in Arlington, Texas in nineteen ninety six.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: That's right, And we should probably tell you what an
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: AMBER alert is before we get into that sad story,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: because if you're from abroad, you don't know that an
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: AMBER warning is when a child has gone missing and
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: they send out basically we'll see it's operated by the state,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: but essentially almost always ends up being a nationwide alert
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: sent to highway billboards that are digital, sometimes lottery signs
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: that are digital and can be changed your cell phone,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: on the television, and they just they get it out
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: in all these ways that hey, we're issuing this now
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: because you know, usually it's like this child is in
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: this kind of car and on a highway, and if
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: everyone keeps their eyes open, we may get lucky here
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: if everyone really pays attention for the next few hours.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: That was a great definition of the amburlers.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I sort of went off on my
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: own thing, but I think everyone knows that the likelihood
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: of finding an abducted person or a missing person gets
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: less and less as time goes on. So those those
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: first that first hour is just so critical, even if
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: they can get out a warning that says there's a
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Ford Taurus with this license plate and this kid is
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: in it, so keep your eyes.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Peeled exactly all right, Well, thanks for setting me up
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: for telling the tragic story of Amber Hagerman, but I
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: kind of have to now. Yeah, back in January of
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, Amber, who was, like I said, a
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: nine year old from Arlington, Texas, had gotten a bike
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: for Christmas and was riding it around near her grandmother's house.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: And there was an abandoned wind Dixie grocery store the
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: parking lot of which she was riding around, riding her
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: bike around, and there was a local man, a seventy
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: eight year old man named Jimmy Kevell, who was watching
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: a ride her bike. And Jimmy Kevill apparently is the
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: lone witness to Amber's abduction. He said that a black
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: pickup truck showed up and a white or Hispanic man
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: in his twenties or thirties got out and took Amber
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: forcibly with him, and there was a nationwide search for Amber.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure what it was about. That case
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: that got everybody, but her disappearance launched a nationwide search
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: pre amber alert, and tragically, three i think three days later,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: dog walker found her body in a creek. Because of
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: the need, it showed to coordinate to get the word
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: out at the Dallas Fort Worth Area Police Department's law
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: enforcement got together with the broadcasters from the area and said, hey,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: let's figure out like a basic way to get the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: word out for abducted children, like asap. Let's figure out
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: a standardized way to do that. And they came up
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: with the Amber alert. I think within ten months they
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: had the system up and running.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, which is a great thing. Sadly, they it's a
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: case it remains unsolved, but let's take a break and
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: we can get back and talk a little bit about
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: the specifics of how they work right after this, all right,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: So I mentioned that it was up to the state,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: which is true. Every state has their own criteria for
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: issuing amber alerts and how it goes down. But the DOJ,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: the Department of Justice, did issue guidelines about recommendations that
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: kind of break down into five categories for different reasons.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: The first one is law enforcement has a reasonable belief
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: that a child was abducted. This one's pretty obvious on
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: what that means. The second one is law enforcement believes
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: the child will suffer serious bodily harm or worse. And
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: the reason they have these criteria is because there are
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: missing children all the time and not all of them.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: In fact, very few of them get the actual Amber alert.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: So this is to sort of qualify for that specific case.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: And the bodily harm one is the need for just
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: a timely response that they have information where they believe,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: you know, in a lot of times it could be
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: like a relative that has them that's very upset or
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: has made threats and things like that.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think the the crux or the underlying
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: gist of AMBER alerts is abduction by a stranger, because
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: that's the greatest danger typically that an abducted child can
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: be in. There's also a standard that most states have
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: adopted seventeen or younger. They're like, let's not put pronouncements
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: on what's a child or not. We can all just
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: basically agree anybody under eighteen as a child and if
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: they meet this criteria, then we're going to issue an
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Amber alert. And then the last part is and this
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: is a step that not everybody takes, but it seems
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: very critical. You want to take that information that you
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: send out on the Amber alert and enter it in
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: the National Crime Information Center system, flag it as a
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: child abduction, and all of a sudden, the AMBER alert
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: will go from a local or a state or a
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: regional thing all the way out to national like nationwide.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Law enforcement all around the country will have an alert
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: that this kid has been abducted, so be on the
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: lookout for them. But not all states have that as
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: part of their criteria contingency plan, which is supper.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, there was one we missed. The other
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: criteria is there's enough detail about the appearance and the
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: abduction of the child so they won't issue an Amber
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: alert if it's just like like I don't know what
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: my kid was wearing, I don't know where she last was.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: I really have no information. They have to have pretty
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: concrete information about what the child was wearing at the time,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: what they looked like at the time, and where they
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: might have been adducted, and especially if there's anything like
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: you know, it was a black pickup truck or it
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: was it was definitely my brother in law and this
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: is his car. And license plate number, and on the
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: seventeen and younger thing, because it's different states. Some states
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: may have a guideline that it's let's say fifteen, but
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: they agree to honor the rule of the state that
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: the abduction took place in.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if the amber alert makes it across state lines, yeah,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: So there's I said that some people are are critical
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: of not necessarily Amber alerts, but just alerts in general.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Because if you're woken up at three am, whether it's
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: an Amber alert, a silver alert, which is used to
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: alert people of a missing person with dementia Alzheimer's purple alert,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: is one for an adult with cognitive impairment who's going missing,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: it's all the same to you. So there's a part
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of issuing amber alerts. And one of the reasons why
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: the criteria is so strict is you don't want to
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: get people used to those alerts. You want it to
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: be a big deal when your phone goes off with
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: an Amber alert at three in the morning, that everybody
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: takes the time to wake up and look, that's that's crucial.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: It's a crucial part of it because if everybody becomes
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: desensitized to it, that's a problem. On the other hand,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: there are people who are like, there's a lot of
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: people who need to have their their the fact that
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: they're missing be alerted out to everybody that just don't
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: meet the criteria of the amberl alert. And so there's
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: other kinds of alerts. Someone's Everbridge alert, which is it's
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: cases where children have been targeted or abducted or gone missing,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: but they don't meet the criteria of the Amber alert.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Like say, you know for a fact the child was
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: abducted and that they're probably in danger, but you don't have,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: like you said, the description of what they were wearing
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: or what kind of car they were forced into, you
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: might not issue an Amber alert. And in fact, in
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty, there were three hundred and sixty five thousand
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: entries that year in the National Crime Information Center system
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: for missing kids, but two hundred of them met the
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: criteria for AMBER alerts to be issued. So there's a
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: weird balancing act that you have to go through that
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I don't think anybody's figured out yet, But that's why
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: that criteria is supposed to be so rigidly adhered to.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and from what I've read, it's not like there's
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: any it's just about the alert, not like necessarily how
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: hard the cops may be working to try and find
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: this missing kid. It's just a very specific criteria because
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: I think when it meets that criteria, that means there's
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: a decent likelihood that if you act fast in the
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: next few hours, like I said at the very beginning,
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: then somebody might see something that could really help. Because
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: we have all this information, I feel like most of
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the ones I've seen have been family members, which is interesting.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: I had no idea that it was supposedly for stranger abduction,
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: but they've done a lot of good work. From nineteen
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: ninety six to twenty twenty three, Amber specifically Amber alerts
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: have contributed to the recovery of one and eighty six children,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: and then other wireless emergency alerts rescued one hundred and
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: sixty five and over that that may not seem like
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: a high number over that period of time, but if
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: it's literally the success of a single signal being sent
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: out finding eleven hundred and eighty six children, that's amazing.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. One of the stories I've seen bandied about by
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: pro Amber alert people just basically everybody that there was
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: like a kid who had an amber alert miss or
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: issued and was recovered within like less than thirty minutes
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: because of the amber alert. So it definitely does work.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, if they're only issuing two hundred a year
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: and they in seven years they managed to cover almost
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: twelve hundred or thirteen hundred children, that's a pretty good
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: track record.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Really.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, you got anything else, I.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Got nothing else. Keep that alert on. It's distressing. But
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: and if you're you know, if you're on the road
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: at the time and you see something like that, like
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: you do your part. That's what they're looking for, is
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: people to really keep their eyes peeled and be vigilant.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you're a state legislator, maybe take the
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: time to really sit there and see if your state
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: has too many or is issuing too many of these
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: things and is in danger of desensitizing the public because
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: you do not want to do that. And of course,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: since I just spoke directly as state legislators, that means
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: short stuff is out.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: or
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Wherever you listen to your favorite shows.